Chapter 67 - Making Sure That Everything Is Alright (2/2)

“We’ll call you again when we’ve decided what to order.”

“Certainly.”

The staff bowed and left. Both, the staff and s.h.i.+ori, looked already accustomed to such an exchange, Akira was the only person there who could not follow it.

People were not only here to eat food, some Hunters picked this restaurant to negotiate with each other to avoid turning their negotiation into a fight. With the Kugamayama City Management and the Hunter Office watching this place, no matter how heated their talks went, they would be forced to act calmly. Thus avoiding the worst-case scenario where they tried to kill each other.

s.h.i.+ori was looking prim in her stylish suit. Unlike Akira, who was wearing clothes that he could use to go to the wasteland anytime, s.h.i.+ori’s suit made her look like some kind of businesswoman. Or to be more precise, she looked like those people who lived in the middle district.

After seeing s.h.i.+ori’s attire, Akira lowered his guard. But on contrary to that, s.h.i.+ori raised her guard when she saw Akira’s attire, after all, he was wearing armour similar to the one that he used when he fought her.

Although Akira looked out of place inside the restaurant, s.h.i.+ori could somehow guess Akira’s intention from his outer appearance. But in reality, Akira had no plans to antagonize s.h.i.+ori at all, the reason why he was in those clothes was simply because he had no other clothes to wear.

s.h.i.+ori looked at Akira with a serious expression, she had resolved herself to be in this place. For some reason, her serious expression looked beautiful.

“Akira-sama, thank you very much for accepting my request. As I promised, I’ll pay for the meal, please order anything you want.”

When he heard that, Akira’s gaze s.h.i.+fted down to the menu in front of him, but he then turned his gaze back to s.h.i.+ori.

“Let’s finish whatever you want to talk about first. After all, we wouldn’t know if I can completely finish your request and deserve this reward.”

“… I understand. Let’s move to the main subject then.”

s.h.i.+ori bowed deeply to Akira.

“First of all, I apologize for causing you so much trouble the other day. And thank you very much for saving Milady. I’m sure you feel rather conflicted about me and Milady, but everything that happened back there was my fault. If you want to, I’ll pay you back with anything I have—money, body, even my life. But in an exchange, please don’t put any blame on Milady.”

s.h.i.+ori pleaded sincerely to Akira. Even Akira understood that s.h.i.+ori really meant what she said.

Because of Reina’s foolishness, the battle that Akira had already won was turned 180 degrees. Moreover, Yajima even took Reina hostage and made s.h.i.+ori fight against him. Fortunately enough, they were able to get out of that situation alive, but it would not be strange if Akira harbored some grudge against Reina and s.h.i.+ori because of their actions. Since the servants’ fault was the master’s fault, thus Akira might even be blaming Reina for what happened.

In order to make sure that Akira was not holding a grudge against Reina, s.h.i.+ori was willing to do anything for him.

Akira was rather taken aback by s.h.i.+ori’s serious att.i.tude.

“Before I give you my reply, there’s one thing that I want to ask you. Why did you take the roundabout way of sending a request through the Hunter Office if you just want to talk with me?”

“If you accept the request, I’ll at least know that you have a good intention.”

s.h.i.+ori employed Akira once when they were in the underground city. At that time, he criticized Reina and said something that angered s.h.i.+ori, but Akira only did that thinking that it was a part of his duty. He did not try to do any lip service as he decided to say his honest opinion even though it might cause a fight.

s.h.i.+ori thought that there was a need to know Akira’s real feelings. Even if Akira already completely regarded Reina and her as his enemies, it would still be better if she knew that. It was also to check whether Akira was only trying to look normal on the outside while thinking of killing Reina on the inside.

s.h.i.+ori had offered her money, body, and even her life to Akira, she hoped that it would be enough to abate Akira’s grudge. Although it was by pure coincidence, Akira was the one who saved Reina after all. s.h.i.+ori could not deny that fact. But if that was not the case, she would have to resolve herself to protect Reina even if it meant that she would have to fight Akira again.

Because of all this, s.h.i.+ori needed to know Akira’s real feelings about that matter.

Of course, Akira could not read that deep into s.h.i.+ori’s intention. But at least, he had already prepared himself for whatever that might happen since he had no plans to lie when he decided to come to that place.

“I see. Leaving aside whether my answer can satisfy you or not, I’ll give you my honest answer. So raise your head and listen well.”

s.h.i.+ori raised her head and waited for Akira’s answer with a serious expression.

Akira hesitated when he saw s.h.i.+ori’s serious face, which made it difficult to express himself.

“Forget about that incident, you don’t need to do anything about it. That’s all.”

“…Hah?”

s.h.i.+ori’s serious expression crumbled down, and that one-word response perfectly reflected her real feeling.

Akira sounded a little bit embarra.s.sed as he continued.

“Ah, well, what can I say? I guess I have to give a proper explanation, huh. Alright then, I’ll explain everything. So just put aside any questions that you have at the moment and listen well. Since you sent that request right to me through the Hunter Office, you know my Hunter Code, right? Use your information terminal to see my battle record in my Hunter profile page, you can do that, right? I can lend mine if you can’t though.”

“Please don’t worry. I understand, please wait for a bit while I check it.”

s.h.i.+ori looked a little puzzled as she did what Akira told her to do, she pulled out her information terminal, opened the Hunter Office’s site, and checked Akira’s battle record. But s.h.i.+ori was shocked when she opened Akira’s profile page and checked for his battle record in the underground city.

“…What is this?!”

s.h.i.+ori looked surprised as she turned her gaze at Akira. When she checked his information page, his battle record was much different from what she knew had happened in the underground city.

Akira’s battle record said that he was monitoring various defense points in the underground city for 3 days, nothing big happened during his a.s.signment, but on the third day, he got injured in a battle against monsters and was sent to the hospital. That was what was written in Akira’s battle record, or at least, that was what the battle record publicly displayed.

Akira then explained to s.h.i.+ori who was obviously confused.

“Due to my confidentiality contract with the requester, the Kugamayama City Management, I can’t tell you the details. But that’s my battle record, it has nothing, right? Since nothing had happened between us, I don’t have anything to do with you. After all, it’s not like something unbelievable had happened. If you can’t accept my explanation, you can go ahead and talk with the City Management. But of course, make sure not to get me involved. I have no wish to pick a fight against the City Management, you know.”

Due to his deal with Kibayas.h.i.+, Akira’s battle record from the underground city was completely rewritten. Akira himself had no wish to talk about it, he was planning to behave as if whatever written in his battle record was the truth.

Because of that, Akira decided to completely forget about everything that had happened between him and s.h.i.+ori. Or at least, he had no plans to bring that up again. Although it would be a lie to say that he did not feel anything about it, it was not enough of a reason to make him take any particular action. Akira had already completely moved on from that incident.

s.h.i.+ori looked at Akira, the Hunter whose battle record was displayed on her information terminal. After taking some time observing him, s.h.i.+ori carefully tried to understand the situation. She tried to recheck if there was anything that she missed, any lies between them, any misunderstandings, or any implicit message she did not interpret that might fatally worsen the situation.

s.h.i.+ori looked very serious as she asked Akira.

“…Nothing happened, is that really alright?”

“Yep, it’s not like anything happened after all.”

“I understand. As a gesture of my thanks for coming all the way here for me just to confirm this matter, you can go ahead and order anything you want.”

s.h.i.+ori smiled as she urged Akira to take the menu in front of him.

“In that case, I won’t hold back.”

After saying that, Akira took the menu in front of him. s.h.i.+ori patted her chest in relief. Now that she had resolved that problem with him, she had nothing more to worry about.

Akira hummed when he read the menu. There were all kinds of dishes written on that menu, although he could read the letters, he had no idea what kind of dishes they were.

“Alpha. This Arandouse Grie New Palies Style with Elianes thingy, what kind of dish is this?”

“No idea, but it seems that it’s some kind of meat dish…”

“Well, it’s written under the meat section, so I’m sure it’s a meat dish, but… I don’t know what kind of dish it is.”

Akira’s hum got longer as he continued reading the menu. s.h.i.+ori could guess what he was thinking looking from how he was behaving, she then smiled and said.

“Akira-sama, I’m planning to order today’s special course. It usually contains a good combination of dishes, so if you don’t know what to pick, how about ordering today’s special course? You can order more dishes if you still want to eat more after that.”

“…I’ll take that then.”

Of course, he could just randomly pick any dish from the menu, but since he might end up ordering weird things by mistake because of his bad luck, he decided to avoid doing such a thing and took s.h.i.+ori’s offer.

s.h.i.+ori called for the waiter and placed the order for her table. It did not take long for their order to arrive. As Akira looked at all the dishes that were lined up in front of him, he noticed that he knew nothing about any of those dishes. For him, all of them looked equally expensive and delicious. Akira made a long ‘hmmmm’ as he nervously reached for one of those dishes and put it in his mouth.

He was overwhelmed as flavours exploded inside his mouth. Akira almost fainted as flavours spread all over his tongue, but he was barely able to survive that fierce a.s.sault. It was because he knew from his experience that losing composure could lead to a fatal situation.

Akira took his time chewing, enjoying, and relis.h.i.+ng the dish which he did not even have the slightest idea of how it was cooked or what was inside it. It was a wonderful dining experience that changed his sense of taste. It was a pleasure that he could never find in the slum city.

Since it looked like Akira was absolutely mind blown and was about to get spirited away, Alpha worriedly asked him.

“Akira, are you okay?”

“A-ah, yeah, I’m alright.”

Instead of using telepathy, Akira accidentally answered Alpha’s question aloud. So in short, he was not alright at all.

s.h.i.+ori was confused when Akira suddenly said that.

“…It doesn’t suit your taste?”

“Eh? Ah, no, it’s alright. It’s so good that it gave me a shock.”

Akira was acting weird as he fl.u.s.teredly answered s.h.i.+ori’s question. s.h.i.+ori too thought that he was behaving strangely as she smiled at him.

“I’m glad that it suits your taste very well. There’s no time limit, so you can take your time enjoying the food.”

“O-okay.”

Akira was somehow able to answer back before he started eating again. Since he had already experienced it before, Akira was not surprised anymore as he continued eating his meal.

Alpha did not say anything and just watched Akira eating. It was because she was worried if she said anything, he might make another mistake.

s.h.i.+ori was enjoying her meal while keeping her eyes on Akira. Seeing how he was eating his meal with a big smile on his face, he did not look like someone who could force her to use her trump card accelerator drug and still fight evenly against her. He looked just like a common young boy that she could find in the city.

But even so, s.h.i.+ori did not drop her guard against Akira. To be more precise, she became even more careful when dealing with Akira after knowing what she just heard today.

Akira’s battle record was completely rewritten. Compared to his real battle record, his new shabby battle record was a big downgrade. But even so, it did not seem like Akira was bothered by that at all. Thus, it could be a.s.sumed that the City Management made some kind of deal with him, a deal that brought him enough benefit that he did not mind his new battle record at all.

[This boy is good enough to make the City Management give him a beneficial deal. It means that the City Management recognizes his ability as a Hunter. With someone like him around, there should be at least some rumours about him, but Drankam’s information network has no information about him at all. Although Drankam is recruiting new young promising Hunters in order to increase its sphere of influence, it doesn’t seem like it’s trying to recruit him. I guess I need to investigate more whether it’s just because the gang still hasn’t discovered about him or if it’s because the gang is deliberately keeping a secret about him. But that might be a dangerous thing to do. I have to avoid anything that might cause Milady any harm…]

s.h.i.+ori’s mind was preoccupied with the person in front of her as she was eating her meal. All this time, Alpha was paying her full attention at s.h.i.+ori.

Akira did not notice Alpha, who was staring at s.h.i.+ori, as all of his attention was focused on enjoying the meal in front of him.

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